“Uncivilised Wireless.”

In sending news across wide spaces the “moccasin Telegraph” of North America is equalled, if not excelled, by the smoke signalling feats of the Australian aborigine, particularly in the northern portion of the island continent, but there is one marked difference between the two countries, in that while quite a number of pale-faces learned to read the redskin messages, there is not a genuine recorded case of any white man having been initiated into the mysteries of the blackfellow's smoke code.

In the speedy transfer of information in primitive portions of Asia and Africa the human voice has been employed in high-pitched calling from hilltop to hilltop, and most people have read of the African and Papuan use of drums to tap out intelligence through forest, swamp and jungle areas.

The conveyance of communications by these means over long distances in surprisingly quick time has received much notice from white travellers, but little has been recorded of what may be named the short distance calls for local reception, although these must have been of frequent occurrence in many lands. When on the war-path the Red Indian advanced through the forest behind a network of scouts who kept in touch with one another by preconcerted signals such as bird notes and cries of animals, and no doubt many other savage races followed a like procedure. These calls, of course, were only of use within the limited range of the human voice.